Some releases you install without feeling a thing. 2.1.233 is different – one change jumps out the moment you work with a current model.
No more todo tools on the newer models
The todo and task-tracking tools – TaskCreate, TaskUpdate, TaskList and TodoWrite – are gone on Opus 4.8, Sonnet 5, Fable 5, Mythos 5 and everything that comes after. If you liked the little checklists Claude Code builds for itself, you bring them back with the environment variable CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TODO_TOOLS=1.
The reasoning is straightforward: the newer models plan in their heads anyway. Those tools were more of a crutch from the days when the model couldn’t hold the structure on its own. Still – if your scripts or expectations lean on them, that’s the line you need to know.
GitLab keeps catching up
GitLab merge requests can now be handed to the --worktree flag and the claude agents view, where they show up as !N. On top of that, a new opt-in forward_user_identity setting on the apps gateway: it passes the signed-in user’s identity along as headers, so a proxy behind it can attribute spend per person. Step by step, GitLab teams go from an afterthought in Claude Code to a first-class case.
A security hole on Windows
Worth knowing for anyone on Windows: paths using the NT \??\ prefix were slipping past UNC validation – a route through which NTLM credentials could leak. That’s closed now. Add the usual repairs: cloud sessions no longer get lost when the environment shuts down mid-prompt, and on Linux an idle session no longer pins a CPU core at 100% for no reason.
My take
Dropping the todo tools is the kind of decision I like: you throw out a helper the moment the model stops needing it. Less stuff in the way. That there’s a switch to bring them back is fair – some workflows depend on them.
And the Windows fix shows again what the daily release cadence is good for. A credential leak isn’t something that should sit around for weeks. Here it gets straightened out in the next version. If you work on Windows, this update is mandatory. Everyone else: grab it and move on.
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